Nine killed as Thai security forces storm hostage scene

RATCHABURI, Thailand (AP) - Thai security forces stormed a hospital today and killed nine heavily armed insurgents from a Myanmar rebel group who had taken hundreds of patients, visitors and staff hostage.

No hostages were hurt during the daylong siege, but two police officers were seriously wounded, Lt. Gen. Thaweep Suwannasingha told reporters.

"It's an operation to clear the situation," Thaweep said. "As far as I know, nine of hostage-takers were killed. The others fled. We are looking for them. We cannot let any foreign troops violate our sovereignty."

Approximately 450 people were believed to have been trapped in the walled, six-acre compound when the attack was launched before dawn Monday. About that number had been freed or escaped throughout the day and night.

Sporadic gunfire and occasional explosions were still ringing out over the compound more than an hour after the operation was launched. Helicopters circled overhead.

The rebels belonging to God's Army, an insurgent group led by 12-year-old twins, took the hostages in an attempt to pressure the Thai government to help their beleaguered movement. It was not clear if the twins were involved in the hospital raid.

The rebels reportedly were aided by dissidents from the group that took control of Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok last October.

Earlier, automatic weapons fire crackled and explosions thudded from inside the hospital, possibly from grenades or mines that the hostage-takers had rigged after taking it over.

Throughout the course of the day Monday, the rebels released patients, some in exchange for food. Dozens of others escaped. Those freed included a pregnant 18-year-old who went into labor and an 8-year-old boy in a coma after brain surgery.

The takeover began at dawn when the raiders hijacked a Thai bus near the border with Myanmar and forced the driver to take them 45 miles to Ratchaburi.

About 10 rebels wearing camouflage gear and masks forced their way into Ratchaburi provincial hospital.

Security officials said the rebels threatened to blow up the hospital if attacked.

In the past week, God's Army has come under sustained attack by troops from Myanmar - formerly known as Burma - at their jungle base near the border, driving at least 1,000 minority Karen refugees into Thailand. Thai troops have fired artillery to prevent the fighters from crossing over the border.

After the hospital was seized, army commander Gen. Surayud Chulanond said Thailand would stop its shelling, allow civilians refuge and let injured guerrillas receive treatment in Thai hospitals. Rebels seeking refuge would have to surrender their arms.

"We will deal very carefully with the situation," he said. "Our first priority is every one of the hostages has to be safe."

About 200 medical staff and 600 patients were in the hospital when it was seized, said Dr. Kawat Suntrajarn of the Public Health Ministry. About 200 were believed to be in the five-story administrative building and emergency room building which were held by the insurgents.

Little was known about the gunmen or the situation inside the hospital until they let in a television crew from Thai television Channel 7. They took footage showing scores of frightened people sitting on rows of waiting-room benches and of a masked man brandishing an assault rifle.

"We want to tell the world how Karen and Burmese refugees live during the fighting," said one hostage-taker, who called himself Nui. "We will not hurt any hostages. We take good care of them."

The government of Myanmar expressed hope that the siege would end without bloodshed, and said the hostage-takers should be treated as terrorists by the international community.

Last Oct. 1, five members of a small dissident group, the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, seized Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok and held dozens of hostages for 26 hours before being flown to the border and freed. Media reports said members of the same group is involved in the hospital takeover.

The dissidents then hid out with God's Army, composed mostly of ethnic Karens and led by twins Johnny and Luther Htoo.

The twins told The Associated Press in December they were fighting for democracy in their homeland, which has been ruled by military dictators since 1962. The Karens have been fighting for more autonomy for more than 50 years.

Like most Karens, God's Army are Christians in a predominantly Buddhist country.